A Scarlet Letter (A) once marked a harlot (OK, OK!… by Puritan New England 1650 standards!) In 1944-45 a French woman with a shaved head meant she was guilty of much the same –but with the added onus of having “slept-in-sin” with the enemy (Germans.)
(Please, amigos! Let’s argue about the morals and merits of these designations another time! My point is that these “brands” were a way to let the world know—easily and without going into a long inquiry--what these women had been up to.)
Well, without a long inquiry, all you really need to know about a news network’s propensity for lying and creating fake news is whether they were bestowed a Havana bureau by Cuba’s totalitarian regime. It’s that simple. Nothing to it.
Unsurprisingly, The New York Times, CNN, ABC and Time magazine (President Trump’s Fake News Award Winners) were all bestowed Cuba “press” bureaus by the totalitarian regime long ago. They’ve also been among the most historically mendacious news outfits “reporting” on-- and from-- totalitarian Cuba. It’s no exaggeration to call their reporting one long list of harlotries on behalf of their John and pimp—the Castro regime.
“No reporter can actually write about what really goes on in Cuba –he can only hint at it. The Castro regime assigns 20 security agents to follow and monitor every foreign journalist. You play the regime’s game and practice self–censorship or you’re gone.” (Vicente Botin, reporter for Madrid’s El Pais who was promptly booted from Cuba for refusing to succumb to the same journalistic harlotries as The New York Times, CNN, ABC, Time, etc. every time they file a “story” from totalitarian Cuba.)
Retired U.S counter-intelligence officer Chris Simmons also explains the issue: “The vetting procedure starts the minute the Cuban regime receives a (journalist) visa application,” says the man long-regarded as America’s top Cuba spycatcher. “When those smiling Cuban “guides” greet you at the airport they know plenty about you, and from several angles.” (Chris Simmons, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s top Cuban spycatcher, now retired.)
In brief, you’re not getting and keeping a Cuban journalist visa (much less a Havana Bureau) unless you shamelessly (and genuinely) collude with Cuba’s KGB-founded and mentored ministry of propaganda—i.e. unless you create Fake News. This isn’t rocket science, amigos.
And it didn’t start with the Trump administration—not by a LONG SHOT! Let’s take President Trump’s top prize winner The New York Times:
“This is not a Communist Revolution in any sense of the term. In Cuba there are no communists in positions of control. Fidel Castro is not only not a Communist, he is decidedly anti-Communist.” (Herbert Matthews, New York Times, July 1959.)
(Fidel Castro, by the way, had seriously “colluded” with KGB agent Nikolai Leonev and his Cuban KGB colleague Osvaldo Sanchez since 1955 when they seriously “colluded” in Mexico City. These “collusion” sessions involved setting the stage for the future Stalinization of Cuba.)
“Fidel Castro has strong ideas of liberty, democracy, social justice, the need to restore the Constitution….but it amounts to a new deal for Cuba, radical, democratic and therefore anti-Communist.” (Herbert Matthews, New York Times, February 1957.)
Leaving no stone unturned, The New York Times also embraced Ernesto “Che” Guevara as an unimpeachable liberty-lover and truth-teller:
“I am not a communist and have never been a communist…It gives me great pain to be called a communist,” (Ernesto “Che” Guevara –who had a KGB handler since 1956– as eagerly and trustingly quoted by The New York Times, January 4th, 1959.)
And speaking of Fake News:
“One Thousand Killed in 5 days of Fierce Street Fighting!” read a New York Times headline on Jan 4, 1959 about the “battle” of Santa Clara in central Cuba where Ernesto “Che” Guevara earned much of his enduring (and utterly bogus) martial fame. “Commander Che Guevara appealed to Batista troops for a truce to clear the streets of casualties,” continues The New York Times article. “Guevara turned the tide in this bloody battle and whipped a Batista force of 3,000 men.”
A year later, Che’s own diaries revealed that his forces suffered exactly one casualty during this Caribbean Stalingrad, as depicted by The New York Times. Your humble servant interviewed several eye-witnesses (on both sides) to this “battle” and their consensus came to about five casualties total for this Caribbean Gettysburg/Verdun, as depicted by The New York Times.
True to New York Times-form, during this “battle,” the paper didn’t have a reporter within 300 miles of Santa Clara. Instead, it relied on trusty Cuban Castroite “correspondents.”
And true to Che Guevara-form, the genuine bloodbath in Santa Clara came a week after the (utterly bogus) “battle,” when Che’s opponents (real and imagined) were utterly defenseless. That’s when Che sent his goons to drag men and boys from their homes and set his firing squads to work in triple shifts.
But absolutely nothing appeared in the trusty New York Times on the genuine bloodbath at Santa Clara. True to Castroite practice, only when “Peace was Given a Chance,” only when their enemies were utterly defenseless, did the bloodbath crank into high gear.
And true to (proud Walter Duranty employer) practice, The New York Times helped cover-up yet another communist atrocity.
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